Job - Chapter 29 | English Standard Version

  • 1. And Job again took up his discourse, and said:
  • 2. "Oh, that I were as in the months of old, as in the days when God watched over me,
  • 3. when his lamp shone upon my head, and by his light I walked through darkness,
  • 4. as I was in my prime, when the friendship of God was upon my tent,
  • 5. when the Almighty was yet with me, when my children were all around me,
  • 6. when my steps were washed with butter, and the rock poured out for me streams of oil!
  • 7. When I went out to the gate of the city, when I prepared my seat in the square,
  • 8. the young men saw me and withdrew, and the aged rose and stood;
  • 9. the princes refrained from talking and laid their hand on their mouth;
  • 10. the voice of the nobles was hushed, and their tongue stuck to the roof of their mouth.
  • 11. When the ear heard, it called me blessed, and when the eye saw, it approved,
  • 12. because I delivered the poor who cried for help, and the fatherless who had none to help him.
  • 13. The blessing of him who was about to perish came upon me, and I caused the widow's heart to sing for joy.
  • 14. I put on righteousness, and it clothed me; my justice was like a robe and a turban.
  • 15. I was eyes to the blind and feet to the lame.
  • 16. I was a father to the needy, and I searched out the cause of him whom I did not know.
  • 17. I broke the fangs of the unrighteous and made him drop his prey from his teeth.
  • 18. Then I thought, 'I shall die in my nest, and I shall multiply my days as the sand,
  • 19. my roots spread out to the waters, with the dew all night on my branches,
  • 20. my glory fresh with me, and my bow ever new in my hand.'
  • 21. "Men listened to me and waited and kept silence for my counsel.
  • 22. After I spoke they did not speak again, and my word dropped upon them.
  • 23. They waited for me as for the rain, and they opened their mouths as for the spring rain.
  • 24. I smiled on them when they had no confidence, and the light of my face they did not cast down.
  • 25. I chose their way and sat as chief, and I lived like a king among his troops, like one who comforts mourners.
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